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slateberry

What is eating my house?

slateberry
13 years ago

On the exterior side of my enclosed front porch, if you look up at a cross member, you see a black crack and black debris falls out of it from time to time.

Here is the crack (photo looking up):

and a closer picture:

Here is the black debris that falls onto the windowsill below:

And another sill/debris picture. Notice the dead body (of a winged ant?) to the left of the screwdriver handle:

Previous owner left a bag of diazinon in the shed; I'm tempted to mix it with honey and inject it into the crack. But that just sounds like such a hack job; I'd like to get a little more information rather than just proceeding blindly. House is 120 years old; porch used to be open but was enclosed about 40 years ago. I'd like to redo it someday, it really is an ugly job (plexiglass porch windows on a victorian????), but for now I'd just like to maintain the existing porch.

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